shrode jewelers

Shrode Jewelers has helped Sarasotans mark their milestones since 1936.

Now it’s hitting one of its own.

After 80 years of selling engagements rings, birthday gifts and anniversary presents, Karl Shrode Jr. is retiring and closing the family business.

The jewelry store looks dramatically different than it did when Shrode’s parents, Karl Sr. and Ethyl Shrode, opened its doors eight decades ago, but their son has carried on the Shrode tradition of quality.

The market slimmed for fountain pens, candelabras and silver platters when players like Maas Bros. moved into town, and over time the store at 1433 Main St. shifted its focus to fine jewelry.

Like family, they celebrated special occasions with their customers, and through the years those customers became like family to them. Their shoppers gathered around the jewelry cases in the front of the store like clockwork. Shrode watched his shoppers grow from nervous young men shopping for engagement rings to mature husbands picking out birthday and anniversary gifts.

People buy jewelry when they’re celebrating, and Shrode and his family celebrated with thousands.

“The older clientele, they trust their store,” Shrode said. “Our store has been here so long that I’ve made such wonderful friends and people that I love dearly.”

Back before malls boomed, the family jewelry store was the place for young women in town to have their ears pierced. A whole generation of women in Sarasota had their ears pierced by Karl Sr. The family got rid of the old piercing stool only recently. Shrode kept it for the memories, but the family is parting with a lot of things these days.

After 80 years, there’s plenty to sort through.

Growing up

Shrode grew up in the store. He was sweeping the floors in the shop before he could even see over the jewelry cases. In the early days, his parents carried a selection of fine silver table top pieces, and he and his siblings would stay up late polishing the smudges off candelabras, platters and cups. He spent the quarter allowance he earned across the street buying candy, and he saved RC Cola bottle caps so he could go to the Florida Theater, which today is the Sarasota Opera house.

He went to school to study jewelry and then worked for his father, Sears and Roebuck and Maas Bros. He took over the business after his father’s death in the mid-1970s. His daughter, Susan Shrode-Berry, followed in her grandfather’s footsteps, too.

The last generation

Like her father, Shrode-Berry grew up in the store. She was with him on buying trips to wholesalers by the time she was 16, and she’ll be by his side when he closes his doors for good in the beginning of March.

It’s time for her father, now 65, to start a new chapter of his life, she said. He’s been working 10 hours a day, six days a week for as long as she can remember. They slipped away to Vail, Colorado, for a family vacation once when she was in middle school, but beyond that her father never really took a break from the business.

It’s time.

“I’m excited for him,” she said. “I’ve wanted him to go and do things and not be so married to this store. There’s such a world out there that he’s never seen.”

Industry changes

And it’s not a bad time to close the business. The jewelry industry as a whole has lost its luster in recent years. E-commerce has pulled younger consumers away from places like Shrode’s dimly lit office and microscope. This next generation of consumers doesn’t look to their neighborhood jeweler when it’s time to buy an engagement ring. They look online.

“The internet has made a big difference in the way that jewelry has been sold and bought today,” Shrode said. “Years ago, someone would come into our store and they trusted you to buy their diamond. A diamond was a thing of joy, and a thing of beauty.”

Traditional jewelry sales and brick-and-mortar retail, in general, have struggled to compete in this increasingly digital market, said Steven Kirn, executive director of the David F. Miller Retailing Education and Research Center at the University of Florida. The Shrodes aren’t the only one leaving the family business.

Online jewelry giants like Bluenile.com make ordering an engagement ring as easy as ordering lunch. The website walks the buyer through shape, cut, color and clarity and can help stay within a specific price range, whether it’s in the low hundreds or into the millions. The final product is shipped to the buyer via Fedex at no additional charge.

“We’re conditioning customers to buy for price no matter what they’re buying,” Kirn said. “If you’re working on a tight budget and you want to have a big rock, you can get one.”

Keeping the romance

It’s efficient, but it takes the romance out of the transaction, Kirn said. It’s about as special as going to Costco Wholesale and walking past aisles of sweat socks, camping gear and giant TVs before making it to the jewelry section.

Those who are staying in the game need to romanticize the jewelry shopping experience, Miller said.

Traditional jewelers won’t be able to compete with wholesale groups and online buyers on price, Kirn said. They’ll have to capitalize on experience, and there is still a market for that.

“What the shops can do is create an atmosphere and climate that’s very different instead of just assembling those parts of a ring (online), which isn’t very romantic,” Kirn said.

Plans blooming

Shrode is ready for a different kind of experience. It’s time to enjoy the fruits of his labor.

He plans to raise orchids, volunteer at his church and buy a small farm. He’ll finally have time to travel and see the country. He’s ready to spend holidays with his family instead of at the store.

“People just don’t realize how hard retail actually is,” Shrode said. “When everyone else is at home enjoying their families on Christmas and on New Years, you’re always doing something.”

But the hardest part of his job is still yet to come. He’s got to say goodbye.

“It’s just going to be hard when it’s something that you’ve done all your life,” he said.